If I pick out all the titles in the Narnia saga, this one seems to have the least promise. The Narnia titles are grand, borderline regal and teases so much — just ask The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and anything that is not The Horse and His Boy. At the same time it implicates comedy as it is the horse who has ownership over the boy and not the other way around.
And while I am only halfway through the Narnia sage albeit in the story order instead of publication order, I felt that The Horse and His Boy has been the strongest one I’ve read so far. I really enjoyed this read immensely. The timeline in the story is also strangely placed: during the time when Peter ruled as a high king and when the kingdom went through its most prosperous and peaceful time. So what other events can happen in between really?
The boy is a fisherman’s son, who after having found out the circumstances of his living, taken by his adopted father and used as a slave, and after meeting a talking horse from Narnia, decided to escape North. Along the way he met with a princess who were also escaping from a forced marriage riding another Narnian talking horse. Our usual suspects in Narnia also made their cameos and are essential cogs to the story.
And this for me is Narnia at its most realised as a mature reader reading a fantasy story for younger readers, this book is pure escapism. For one, the protagonists are actually escaping. One from slavery and the other from marriage. Second, because this expands the world outside Narnia so much — showing us the other kingdoms and the periphery landscape of Narnia — the stunning but corrupt city of Tashbaan, the desert, the mountains of Archenland.
And it is the details that really make the book credible in a story where we can take talking horses for granted: the long shadows of the desert, the burning of the desert when walking barefoot, the impenetrable fog in the mountains, the smell of garbage in Tashbaan. Out of the Narnia books I’ve read in the reading order so far, I find the writing in The Horse and His Boy to be the best of the lot.
But all this prose will just fall apart without its characters. Even though most of the Pevensies make their appearance here, the characters we are introduced to in this book are as engaging, and dare I say more likeable? There are also funny events in this book that make you laugh but also reveal much about each character. My favourite part of the book was the first time when Shasta met the royal Corin, his doppelganger. We learned so much of the two characters from a simple interaction that wouldn’t have lasted longer than 5 minutes.
I’ve re-read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe now, but I wouldn’t be re-reading that for a third time. But so far, if I want to re-read a Narnia book for the sake of escapism, The Horse and his Boy is my new go to.
